Briefly: ABC Vancouver city councillor Lenny Zhou’s calendar says he met with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service for a briefing on July 17.
Zhou was elected on Mayor Ken Sim’s ticket in 2022. The Globe and Mail later reported that a Chinese diplomat wanted a Chinese-Canadian candidate to replace pro-Taiwan mayor Kennedy Stewart.
Sim’s calendar shows no meetings with Chinese officials. He has met with diplomats from a variety of countries, including the U.S., Japan and Taiwan.
Bob Mackin
A Vancouver city councillor attended a briefing with officials from Canada’s spy agency in July.
The calendar for Coun. Lenny Zhou, elected on Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC Vancouver ticket in 2022, shows he spent two hours in a “briefing with CSIS” from 10 a.m. to noon on July 17.
At the 2024 memorial for Tiananmen Square victims, Coun. Lenny Zhou and Taiwan’s top rep in Vancouver, Angel Liu (Mackin)
Zhou is on vacation and unavailable for comment. The Beijing native has made no secret of his opposition to the Chinese Communist Party government. He has spoken out in favour of human rights and democracy and attended protests critical of the governments of China, Russia and Iran. Most-recently, Zhou appeared at the 35th anniversary memorial at David Lam Park for victims of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Zhou came to Canada to study at the University of B.C. in 2005 and was the manager of operations engineering at B.C. Children’s Hospital when he ran for office in 2022.
Zhou is also the first prominent B.C. politician since Conservative Party of B.C. leader John Rustad to reveal a meeting with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. In early August, CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam said “we don’t confirm or discuss specific engagements for reasons of privacy.”
“CSIS has observed foreign interference at all levels of government across Canada and across party lines targeting individuals in positions of potential influence,” Balsam said.
“CSIS is committed to equipping elected officials to identify foreign interference threats and take measures to ensure their personal safety, including by providing briefings.”
Balsam said CSIS Act amendments, in Bill C-70, enable disclosure of information, subject to privacy protections, to individuals and organizations outside the federal government.
“Increased resiliency enables Canadian society at large to better mitigate the impact of foreign interference before it undermines our institutions, economy, rights and sovereignty,” Balsam said.
In March 2023, the Globe and Mail reported on leaks of CSIS documents that indicated a Chinese diplomat in Vancouver, Consul-Gen. Tong Xiaoling, worked to defeat Taiwan-supporting, 2018-elected mayor Kennedy Stewart and help get a Chinese-Canadian candidate elected.
Sim won by a landslide in October 2022 and his ABC party achieved a supermajority.
“If there is proof of this, I’d be as mad as hell as everyone else,” Sim said after the Globe and Mail story.
Vancouver Coun. Lenny Zhou at the 2024 memorial for 1989 Tiananmen Square victims (Zhou/X)
The Chinese consulate in Vancouver denied meddling in Canadian affairs.
Tong ended her assignment in July 2022. Her successor, Yang Shu, and the director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, Chen Qingjie, were among the 28 members of the B.C. consular corps from 26 countries at the swearing-in for Sim, Zhou and the rest of the new city council on Nov. 7, 2022.
An analysis of Sim’s agendas through the end of July 2024 do not include any entry for a one-on-one meeting with a Chinese government official. In June 2023, he met with the top local representative for the self-governing nation that Xi Jinping has threatened to invade: Angel Liu, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver, Taiwan’s de facto consulate.
Since then, Sim has also met diplomats representing U.S. Japan, Argentina, Bulgaria, Guatemala, Hungary, Switzerland and Turkey.
A year before his election victory, Sim appeared with Chinese consular officials and heads of local pro-Beijing business and cultural associations at a Jack Poole Plaza event to promote the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Since becoming mayor, Sim has attended events where Chinese officials were present, such as the Chinatown Lunar New Year parade and the Teochew Canada Federation banquet.
However, no Vancouver politician was involved when the former mayor of Vancouver’s Chinese sister city, Guangzhou, visited city hall on Oct. 19, 2023. Guo Yonghang, the senior Chinese Communist Party official in Guangzhou, met with city manager Paul Mochrie, deputy city manager Armin Amrolia and four intergovernmental affairs and protocol staffers. Briefing notes obtained under freedom of information stipulated: “no photos during the meeting.”
It was the first official visit by a Chinese government entourage to B.C. since Premier John Horgan hosted Wang Chen from Xi’s Politburo in 2018.
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